Traditional home septic systems are effective at reduction of solid waste and converting nitrogenous compounds to stable nitrates. A liquid nitrate stream moves unimpeded through the soil substrate resurfacing as groundwater bearing pollutants that facilitate algal blooms, disrupts biological cycles, and when consumed by humans, may constitute a direct health threat.
Septic systems are typically relegated to single user rural areas where central treatment systems are impractical due to the low population density and long distances from a centralized location for treatment. The millions of these systems constitute a real environmental contaminant threat.
While large municipal treatment plants are capable of removing nitrates through a complicated series of aerobic and anaerobic processes which convert the nitrate into nitrogen gas through oxidative and reductive action, their remote locations confound the transport of waste to and from the facility, limiting the practicality of utilizing reclaimed water to serve remote customers.
Until recently small, 500 gallon per day, treatment systems have not been able to provide discharge waters low enough in nitrate to be considered non-polluters. The discharge waters from these systems has not been considered to be of high enough quality to be available for reuse in irrigation systems, or surface water recharge.
There is a need for small single user systems that are capable of producing discharge water that is devoid of typical contaminants present in septic systems such as nitrates, phosphorus, and heavy metals.